States Roundup of Passenger Rail Project Progress
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by Kenneth G. Sislak There remains high interest in passenger rail service investment and improvement. Recently, Vice President Joe Biden joined U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx near Charlotte's Amtrak depot to push a long-term plan to finance transportation projects. And they urged more investment in passenger rail as part of the Obama administration's $478 billion, six-year transportation plan for roads, rails, bridges and transit. Over the past year, several intercity passenger and high-speed rail projects have been featured in SPEEDLINES with articles describing the progress they are making. In previous issues we highlighted the All Aboard Florida and Texas Central Railway projects. In this issue the California high-speed rail project is again presented because of the historic groundbreaking of the first construction segment between Merced and Fresno. We continue to feature the NEC FUTURE project because of the importance of the Northeast Corridor to passenger railroading in America. However, very quietly there is progress being made on passenger rail projects across the country that often goes unnoticed because of the large banner headlines of these other high profile projects. It is important to highlight these other projects. Alabama - A recent feasibility study sponsored by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) and jointly funded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the cities of Birmingham and Montgomery, considered passenger service between Birmingham and Montgomery, with expectation for future extension to Mobile. A similar study related to the feasibility of initiating passenger rail service in the Birmingham-Atlanta corridor was conducted by Georgia DOT in partnership with the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB). While public outreach revealed pent-up demand for such services, implementation steps are difficult. The study was prepared by HDR. Funding for capital improvement investments and operating assistance is not available. But the state continues to publicize the project and includes it in the State Rail Plan. Arizona – Arizona DOT (ADOT) has been working closely with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the FRA and local governments and planning organizations in Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties on completing planning and environmental studies of the Phoenix – Tucson passenger rail service. During the last two years of the study, nearly 7,000 people across Arizona completed surveys to weigh in with their ideas of which routes best served communities. ADOT has identified three potential routes. But, there is currently no construction schedule and no funding identified for the project. The project remains alive as an aspiration. Arkansas – The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) was awarded funds from the FRA to develop a feasibility study and a Service Development Plan (SDP) for corridor improvements and expansion of service in the Arkansas portion of the existing South Central High-Speed Rail Corridor (SCHRC) between Little Rock and Texarkana. In addition, AHTD also is studying the feasibility of improvements for the provision of new passenger rail service between Little Rock and Memphis. AECOM is currently assisting AHTD in preparing the SDP and feasibility studies. Colorado - The Front Range of Colorado is continuing to grow into a linear economic region from Fort Collins to Pueblo with increasing traffic congestion throughout. A high level of support has been expressed by many communities throughout Colorado to implement a passenger rail system. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Division of Transit & Rail and the FRA prepared the Interregional Connectivity Study (ICS), which examined multiple types of high-speed rail technologies. The study was completed in January 2014 by CH2M Hill. Neither a preferred alignment nor a preferred technology has been identified by CDOT. And there is no funding. But CDOT actively publicizes the project. Connecticut - The Connecticut Department of Transportation is looking for an operator to run its planned New Haven to Springfield passenger rail “CTrail Hartford line” service. The $365 million project is expected to provide trains at least every half hour during peak hours from Springfield to New Haven with stops at Hartford and other stops in between. Trains are expected to start rolling in late 2016. This service has been in the planning phase since 2003 when Connecticut initiated a major study to evaluate the implementation of new passenger rail service between New Haven and Springfield. This study included significant public outreach activities and initiation of an assessment of the environmental impacts of new passenger rail service along the corridor and was conducted by CDM Smith. Georgia – The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is studying two passenger rail corridors. GDOT is preparing a Tier I Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the general environmental and related impacts of constructing and operating proposed high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) between Atlanta and Chattanooga for the FRA and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in cooperation with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). An Administrative Draft of the EIS has been reviewed by the FRA and the consultant team led by AECOM is currently addressing FRA review comments. In addition, GDOT is preparing the Atlanta to Charlotte Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan (PRCIP). This is an extension of the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor (SEHSR), which is under development from Charlotte to Washington, D.C. The extension from Charlotte, would travel southeast through portions of South Carolina and into Atlanta. HNTB is preparing the Tier 1 EIS. Louisiana - A study was completed for the Baton Rouge – New Orleans passenger rail corridor in 2010 by Burk-Kleinpeter, Inc in association with HDR. But there is no funding. However, the project continues to be actively publicized by rail advocates in the state. Massachusetts – USDOT awarded $70 million for final design and construction of the "Knowledge Corridor" along the Connecticut River rail line in western Massachusetts. The Knowledge Corridor – Restore Vermonter Project is one of the initiatives included in the Vision for the New England High – Speed and Intercity Rail Network. The Knowledge Corridor - Restore Vermonter Project will restore Amtrak's intercity passenger train service to its original route by relocating the Vermonter from the New England Central Railroad back to its former route on the Pan Am Southern Railroad. The Pan Am Southern route provides a shorter and more direct route for the Vermonter between Springfield and East Northfield, and improves access to densely populated areas along the Connecticut River. The Pan Am Southern route would include station stops at the former Amtrak station at Northampton and the new intermodal station at Greenfield. The routing of Amtrak service in Vermont and south of Springfield would remain unchanged. Michigan – The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is upgrading the Chicago - Detroit/Pontiac corridor for improved speeds and additional daily departures. Their goal is to increase daily departures from three trains each way to nine and cut Chicago -Detroit trip times from 5.5 hours to 4 hours. MDOT in partnership with Illinois and Indiana is preparing a TIER I EIS for FRA on the Chicago–Detroit/Pontiac, MI route. This will create a 20-year master plan for the corridor. The Draft EIS has been produced with the assistance of a team of consultants led by HNTB. Additional passenger rail studies are in the procurement or early project development phase, including a proposal to operate trains between Grand Rapids – Ann Arbor – Detroit. A project linking Traverse City to Ann Arbor – Detroit is being proposed. Minnesota – There are two passenger rail projects advancing through project development in Minnesota. The Northern Lights Express (NLX) is a proposed passenger rail project between Minneapolis and Duluth. The Minneapolis-Duluth/Superior Passenger Rail Alliance is a joint powers board formed to explore options for renewing passenger rail service on existing BNSF tracks in the 152 mile corridor. The Alliance and its community partners are working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation Passenger Rail & Environmental Services offices to advance the project. The Tier 1 EIS was completed by Kimley – Horn/SRF. A Finding of No Significant Impact was signed by FRA in 2013. Currently, Quandel Associates is working on defining the operating plan and locating stations and other facilities. The second project is the Rochester - Twin Cities Rail Corridor (Zip Rail), which is an approximately 100-mile corridor located between Rochester and the Minneapolis/St. Paul. Currently, Parsons Brinckerhoff is preparing a Tier 1 EIS for FRA in partnership with the project sponsors, Minnesota Department of Transportation and Olmsted County Regional Railroad Authority. A project scoping report has been prepared. Mississippi - Mississippi is a member-state of the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission, which has envisioned a high speed rail service operating along the Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast Corridor runs from Houston to Atlanta. The Corridor travels east through Baton Rouge to New Orleans, Biloxi and finally Mobile. A line runs north from New Orleans to Atlanta. The line between New Orleans and Atlanta via Meridian and Hattiesburg would use the Norfolk Southern Railway’s mainline. A leg of this service would operate along the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Mobile on the CSX Transportation mainline. A feasibility study was completed in 2006. This passenger rail project is still in the State Rail Plan despite not identifying how this project will be paid for. Missouri - Amtrak service is provided in Missouri on two long distance routes – the Southwest Chief and Texas Eagle - and two regional routes - the Missouri River Runner and Lincoln Service. The state provides about $8 million annually to operate the Missouri River Runner. Amtrak ridership in Missouri has grown 46 percent in the last five years. Recommendations to improve Missouri’s passenger rail service are part of a greater plan to improve travel within the Midwest region and are outlined in the State Rail Plan prepared by HNTB. Montana - Amtrak completed an analysis of the restoration of passenger rail through the southern part of Montana for the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT). The Amtrak study examines two segments. The first is between Sandpoint, ID and Williston, ND and is limited to a track analysis and outlines improvements that would be needed to make the railroads ready to carry passenger rail. The second part of the study provides more detailed analysis along the most populous segment of the same route, between Billings and Missoula, MT. This study considers investments, timetables and ridership. The Amtrak study was intended to help inform further planning and policy development in regard to the restoration of passenger rail service through Montana's populous southern corridor. Amtrak recommended state policymakers determine if passenger rail service should be developed along this southern route and if so, identify funding for capital and operating expenses. Rail advocates continue to press the state for the new southern route. Their goal is to restore the North Coast Hiawatha route across southern and central Montana, possibly from Glendive, Miles City, Billings, Livingston, Bozeman and Helena to Missoula. Nevada – There are many proposals to improve passenger rail service in Nevada. Some include private enterprise such as the Las Vegas Railway Express (X-Train) conventional speed entertainment-themed passenger rail project between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the XpressWest high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas to the California high-speed rail system at Victorville. The X-Train is still seeking private financing to start services on a new route alignment that avoids heavily congested UP routes. XpressWest completed an environmental impact statement and received a Record of Decision. With all required federal right-of-way approvals in place and having received the necessary licensing and approvals to construct and operate, XpressWest only needs to secure the funding to construct. XpressWest in 2010 filed a loan application with the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program. In 2013, Representative Paul Ryan (R, WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee and Senator Jeff Sessions (R, AL), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee announced in a joint letter the USDOT had advised Xpress West it had suspended consideration of the requested RRIF loan indefinitely. The federal loan had been considered necessary for the project to proceed by Xpress West officials. In 2014, Senator Harry Reid (D, NV) mentioned that the federal loan request may resurface, but little has been seen so far of the project's continued viability. A number of other studies will likely influence passenger rail in the state, especially over the longer term. Amtrak’s PRIIA-required study of its California Zephyr service found in 2010 that only 30 percent of this route’s trains operated on schedule. Amtrak’s September 2010 PRIIA study evaluated restoring Desert Wind service. Each of these services would require state support. The Western High Speed Rail Alliance (WHSRA) is focused on realizing long-term high-speed rail opportunities as part of an initiative to provide intercity passenger rail service throughout the western states. This initiative is being explored in FRA’s Southwest Multi-State Rail Planning Study, which is a regional rail planning model or guideline with national supporting data. All of these projects are described in greater detail in the Nevada State Rail Plan prepared by Jacobs.
URS, which was acquired by AECOM, recently completed the Capitol Corridor Rail and Transit Alternatives Analysis (AA) which examined passenger rail service between Boston and Concord, NH with potential extension to Montreal. The study found the need for this passenger rail service has been growing for decades along the 73-mile corridor. A series of recommendations have been made. New Mexico - New Mexico is served by two long-distance Amtrak trains, the Southwest Chief and the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle. The Southwest Chief is a daily train in each direction, serving the northern New Mexico towns of Raton, Lamy, Albuquerque, and Gallup. The Sunset Limited serves the southern New Mexico towns of Deming and Lordsburg in addition to El Paso, Texas three days a week in each direction. A number of people have called for the development of a new transportation option for Front Range residents to promote economic development by connecting more than half of the dozen largest metropolitan areas in the Mountain Time Zone. As indicated, this initiative is being explored in FRA’s Southwest Multi-State Rail Planning Study. New York - New York is developing plans to strengthen its rail passenger system by providing higher speed passenger rail within the Empire Corridor. Adding to the appeal are anticipated improvements in on-time performance and reliability resulting from investments in this 463-mile rail corridor between New York City and Buffalo/Niagara Falls. HNTB assisted New York State DOT in preparing a Tier 1 EIS for the Empire Corridor on behalf of the FRA. North Carolina – North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) oversees passenger rail improvement projects with the goal of safely connecting residents to their desired destinations more efficiently. The Piedmont Improvement Program (PIP) is NCDOT's largest and most significant rail program encompassing a series of projects along the North Carolina Railroad Corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte. These projects are largely funded through federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The FRA awarded the state a $545 million grant from that program in 2010. A cooperative agreement with the FRA specifies that $520 million of the money must go directly to PIP, which includes adding two Amtrak trips between Raleigh and Charlotte--making a total of five trips daily. PIP will be complete in early 2017. The rest of the money is helping to improve reliability of existing freight and passenger service from Raleigh to Virginia. The Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor (SEHSR) was designated by Congress as running from Washington, DC through Richmond, VA and Raleigh, NC to Charlotte, NC, with maximum speeds of 110 mph. It is part of an overall plan to extend service from the existing Northeast Corridor (Boston to Washington) to points in the Southeast. North Carolina and Virginia are members of a compact brought together to evaluate high-speed rail in this corridor. A “tiered” approach was adopted for the SEHSR environmental studies because of the length of the corridor. The original SEHSR Tier I EIS and Record of Decision covered the entire Washington, DC to Charlotte, NC corridor at a program level, establishing the overall project purpose and need and modal alternative along with the preferred corridor. Texas – In the last issue of SPEEDLINES, we highlighted the efforts of the privately-financed Texas Central Railway (TCR) working to bring to bring high‐speed rail service to the 240 mile Dallas-Houston corridor. But this is not the only corridor currently being examined in Texas. Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is evaluating an 850-mile corridor from Oklahoma City to South Texas. The Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study is commended in 2013 and is scheduled to conclude by the end of 2015. The study includes the completion of a Tier I EIS and a service development plan. Both of these reports will document how passenger rail could serve Texas communities and the benefits and impacts of different passenger rail choices. The study will consider the corridor as a whole, as well as three discrete portions of the corridor including, Oklahoma City to Dallas/Fort Worth; Dallas/Fort Worth to San Antonio and San Antonio to Rio Grande Valley/Corpus Christi/Laredo. CH2M Hill is conducting the study on behalf of TxDOT. Virginia – Virginia has an active state-sponsored passenger rail program. The Commonwealth of Virginia presently invests in six state-sponsored trains that are an extension of the Northeast Corridor regional service: Lynchburg, which started in October 2009; a Richmond train, which began in July 2010; the extension of the Richmond train to establish the Norfolk route, which debuted in December 2012; and the successful transition of two existing Amtrak routes originating in Newport News and two additional routes in Richmond in October 2013. Service to Roanoke, an extension of the highly-successful Lynchburg train, is among the most anticipated projects from DRPT. A public-private partnership with Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, the city of Roanoke and DRPT will bring intercity passenger rail service back to Roanoke for the first time in more than 34 years. Service is scheduled to begin in 2017. VDRPT completed the Tier 1 EIS of the Richmond to Hampton Roads extension of the SEHSR and received a Record of Decision in fall 2012. On October 23, 2014, FRA published a notice of intent in the Federal Register to prepare the Tier II EIS for the 123-mile portion of the SEHSR Corridor from Washington, DC to Richmond, VA. The environmental study area begins at the southern terminus of the Long Bridge over the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia and continues south to Centralia, Virginia at the CSXT A-Line/CSXT S-Line junction. This study will evaluate alternatives and environmental impacts within the preferred corridor described in the Tier I Record of Decision for the SEHSR Corridor from Washington, DC to Charlotte, North Carolina. Washington – Washington State has invested nearly $500 million of its own funds in rail service, for both capital projects ($228 million) and operating costs ($271 million) along its portion of the 467-mile Cascades Corridor linking 18 cities in the Pacific Northwest from Eugene, OR north through Portland and Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. In addition to state funding, Washington received $800 million in federal high-speed rail funding to improve the Washington segment of the Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor (PNWRC), between Vancouver, WA and the Canadian border. The details of the project were reported on in SPEEDLINES #12 dated June 2014. The ARRA-funded Cascades high-speed rail program continues to make strides, and now has 10 projects in construction, 5 completed and 5 in the design stage. Recent updates include the completion in early January of the Tukwila. The $46-million station replaces a temporary structure and serves as a major, multimodal transportation hub. Construction was partially funded and overseen by Sound Transit with assistance and financial support from Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), FRA and FTA. Station dedication and rider appreciation events occurred on February 18. 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